Apps are like blue jeans: since their invention, they don’t seem to have gone out of fashion. There’s more money in apps than ever before – so it’s no surprise that businesses still consider creating their own, even though it’s over ten years since Apple opened the floodgates, and major players like eBay and Amazon started appearing on the App Store.

Yet once you peel away the attractive veneer, the figures aren’t quite what they seem; in reality, app development might not prove profitable if you’re looking to explore the option as a new channel. In fact, it might be quite damaging to your bottom line.

Don’t fear; it’s not all bad news. There is a future-proof, cheaper and better alternative for omnichannel retail if you decide against building an app. The argument against developing an app is much more than a numbers game, and there’s a wealth of statistics that prove there are other, more accurate underlying trends characterising the app market that you need to take notice of.

Breaking down the numbers

Revenue is usually a great barometer for success, but in terms of user adoption, usage and interaction with apps, the landscape is shifting in an entirely different direction – one that doesn’t necessarily reflect well on retail.

Non-shopping apps skew the statistics. Apps do bring in big bucks, but it’s not retail giants powering this trend. During August 2018, the top three games on iPhone alone (Fortnite, Candy Crush Saga, Pokémon GO) brought in over $4 million a day in the US. Media streaming services (Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime Video), along with dating subscriptions (Tinder, Match, Zoosk) accounted for over half of the top ten non-game apps by revenue as per a survey by SensorTower last year.

Amazon is now so huge that a comScore survey earlier this year found that people spent more time on it than the rest of the top ten retailers combined – influencing the aforementioned 54% rise in shopping app engagement. Its product range now accounts for 81% of all sales of FCMG, 65% of all apparel and accessories, and 75% of furniture, appliances and equipment in the US. On top of this, 78% of mobile access was spent in-app.

Mobile shopping does not just mean app-based shopping. Last year, mobile and tablet purchases on Black Friday in the US surpassed that of desktop for the first time, and it’s only set to grow. Yet this data is solely down to access via device – in reality, the vast majority of this came from the mobile web, not mobile apps.

Many people use apps once, then never touch them again. In a steadily-holding trend, apps used just once after being downloaded hangs at 21% in 2018, according to Localytics, which added: “There is still progress to be made to keep users from jumping ship before they see the value of your app.” With one in five people, the novelty can wear off quickly.

Some people don’t download apps at all. Despite app use being massive among mobile users – again, skewed by digital media streaming – comScore discovered in mid-2017 that just over half (51%) of them download zero apps per month. Getting people to see an app is one thing, but if they don’t open the store in the first place, there’s a different problem entirely.

The true cost of creating and running an app

In the minds of many, these statistics will still be dismissed by many successful app developers, and well as new app creators who believe they’ve got the perfect release for the current market. They’re not wrong, either: if an app is good enough, it’ll succeed, even if it’s late to market.

Yet for the most part, app success is hard to gauge, or even record. It all boils down to risk vs reward, but at a time when retail success is already strained, the time and effort spent getting an app to market – and then maintaining it when it’s there – could be a lot greater than you expect.

The wider price of development. Getting staff – either internally or externally – isn’t cheap. However, this team needs to be “always on”. It’s not a simple case of building an app, releasing it and letting it do its thing. You need staff on hand to:

Issue patches and fixes as bugs are found or when Apple or Google release new versions of their operating systems.

Duplicate functionality to the app as new features are developed for the website.

Customise the experience to different releases of operating systems, as well as the different operating systems themselves, i.e. iOS and Android (at a minimum).

Maintain a whole marketing channel for the app – one that’s separate to the marketing of the website.

Understand, create and deploy bespoke technology that integrates analytics, A/B testing tools, heat-mapping and other feedback technologies – something that can be incredibly difficult to achieve, using technology that is often inferior to established services for standard website testing.

As soon as you create potential barriers to a sale, your business has the wrong outlook.

The cost of an app to the user. While it’s been established that apps are often never downloaded by consumers, those that do take the plunge often do it after assessing a number of simple factors:

Despite bigger and better data packages than ever, mobile data is precious to users, and apps are now well known to drain this passively. Even games are “always on” even if they’re played offline, sometimes requiring connection with

Phone memory is also precious, and apps take this space up; many handsets are still restricted to non-expandable memory, most notably iPhones.

Time is money, and the act of going to an app store, downloading the program and waiting for it to install may take as long – if not longer – than a visit to the mobile site to buy the product there.

Simply put, as soon as you create potential barriers to a sale, your business has the wrong outlook. A true omnichannel company makes the act of buying a product or service as straightforward as possible, and expectantly consistent across all channels.

So, if you’re looking to capitalise on the native app channel without actually building one, what do you need to do?

That’s a wrap

If you plan to create an app that is just a downloadable version of your website, but with little-to-no added meaningful functionality, there’s simply no point, as this just moves time and money away from the necessary goal for any online business: improving the user experience of your mobile site.

If you have a poor mobile site, it could be tactically smart to make the short-term decision to build an app and mitigate those major issues – but the strategic, long-term project which underpins this should always be to fix the website.

At the other end of the spectrum, you might have an industry-leading mobile site, to which you want to introduce significant additions to enhance the experience – however, all improvements should target the largest number of eyeballs wherever possible – and that's your mobile site.

This approach doesn’t mean you have to neglect the potential of native app users. By utilising a wrapper – a native app that merely contains a window into your existing mobile website – you can layer on the minimal amount of functionality that is simply impossible to achieve on the web, without enormous investment both upfront and in long-term maintenance.

What might surprise you, however, is how far you can push the capabilities of the web – it’s a constantly evolving platform, that has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years, to the point where it has caught up massively with the hurdle-less simplicity that apps were once known for. For example, well-designed mobile-friendly sites in 2018 boast features such as:

Apple Pay / Android Pay

Offline support

3D rendering

Gestures, such as swiping and pinching

Sensor integration, such as geolocation, gyroscope and the camera

The future looks even brighter for the web platform, too; APIs are currently being developed for Touch/Face ID, Bluetooth/USB integration and even Virtual Reality, truly closing the gap on the functionality that continues to be the sole preserve of apps.

This means the majority of your investment can go into your mobile site, where the majority of customers are, and the native applications become tiny, maintainable layers of additional functionality that enhance the user experience even more. Over time, as the web platform implements more native-only functionality, you can migrate more and more into your mobile site, making them available to 100% of digital customers, not just the small percentage using your native app.

A progressive frame of mind

The decision to focus on making a friendly, app-like interface for mobile sites is not new; in fact, two corporate giants have proudly reported the success they’ve had developing progressive web apps to deliver the experience their customers demanded.

Meanwhile, Debenhams has seen double-digit growth since deploying its own Progressive Web App. Also focusing on speed has meant the new site has allowed customers to complete their session over three times faster than before.

Success stories are rolling in already, and from businesses that took a calculated risk with new technology to improve mobile service. And so we’re back with the initial question…

So, should I build a new app?

Put simply: probably not.

Businesses with successful apps should certainly continue to develop them, but possibly consider migrating more functionality to their mobile website. However, companies that are yet to appear on app stores must ask themselves five questions before taking the leap:

Is app development worth the cost, both initially and in the long term?

Will an app add a new revenue stream, or just partially cannibalise existing income streams?

Is there enough repeat custom to justify people installing it for regular use?

What makes an app markedly different or better than an improved mobile website experience?

Are customers asking for an app – and if they are, why do they need one?

Ultimately, if you have a fantastic reason for an app – and you absolutely have to build one to satisfy audience demand – do it. But strategically speaking, the most important bottom line is the ecommerce platform you have, which should be able to cover all elements of the omnichannel process, including web and native apps.

If you can’t create the exact experience you want with your website, an app may be for you – but in real terms, what business-critical abilities can only an app deliver your customers?

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